In this issue:

AI ain’t new.
It’s just the latest hustler on the block.

Workers sweating. Companies bracing. Governments scrambling.
We’ve seen this movie before—Industrial Revolution, Internet Age—different soundtrack, same plot.

The Fed says we’re in the retraining phase. That’s the warning bell.
And history? It keeps receipts on who adapts… and who gets buried.

The only real question—
Are you about to level up?
Or end up as a footnote in someone else’s disruption story?

Read on.

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The HR Blotter

Bias by Code: How AI Shuts Workers Out - The EEOC just threw a grenade into the boardroom: AI hiring tools are the new face of discrimination. Behind the shiny pitch of “efficiency,” these systems are quietly locking out women, older workers, and people of color. Employers hiding behind algorithms won’t dodge liability—machine bias is still bias, and the courtroom won’t care if it came from a human gut or a line of code. At work, fairness isn’t a buzzword, it’s survival. Screw it up, and you’re not just bleeding talent—you’re buying yourself a front-row seat in a lawsuit.

No Interviews, Just Combat: Telegram’s Hiring Arena - Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov doesn’t believe in job interviews. Instead, he pits candidates against each other in coding contests, letting skills speak louder than résumés or small talk. It’s a gladiator-style hiring approach that cuts through the fluff—no rehearsed answers, no corporate theater—just raw ability under pressure. For workers, it’s brutal but fair; for employers, it’s a reminder that talent shines brightest when the spotlight is on performance, not pedigree.

From 9-to-5 to 15 Minutes at a Time - Micro-shifting is the latest work trend—ditching the 9-to-5 grind for quick bursts of focus scattered through the day. Instead of marathon sessions, workers carve out 15 to 60-minute sprints between errands, workouts, or family duties. It’s a survival tactic for burned-out employees and overstretched managers, showing that productivity isn’t about clocking hours anymore—it’s about squeezing results out of whatever scraps of time the modern world leaves you.

Retrain or Die: Accenture’s AI Purge - Accenture just gave its workers a cold ultimatum: evolve into AI-ready talent or get shown the door. The consulting giant is cutting thousands under an $865 million restructuring plan, trading human careers for margin expansion. Leadership calls it “exiting” staff who can’t be retrained, but for employees, it’s a corporate death sentence dressed up as strategy. In the workplace, this is the new line in the sand—adapt to the algorithmic age or be left behind with a severance check and a warning to everyone still on payroll.

The Rise of the Fake Hire - AI identity fraud is breaking into the workplace. Employers admit candidates are faking résumés, interviews, even entire personas with AI—and landing jobs. Companies are bleeding thousands on hires who never should have made it past the first screen. The message is clear: if recruiters don’t wise up fast, the machines won’t just be taking jobs, they’ll be stealing them under fake names.

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The Jim Stroud Podcast

Not subscribed to The Jim Stroud Podcast? Then you’ve been flying blind. Here’s a taste of what they’ve been hearing—while you’ve been missing it.

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Lessons From History: AI Isn’t New—It’s Just the Latest Hustler on the Block

History doesn’t repeat, but it sure as hell rhymes. And right now? It’s spitting bars straight out of a remix we’ve all heard before.

Workers are sweating bullets, afraid of becoming obsolete. Industries are bracing like a fighter waiting for the gut punch. Governments are scrambling, trying to regulate tech that moves faster than their bureaucratic shuffle can follow. Sound familiar? It should. We’ve been here before. Twice.

The New York Federal Reserve says businesses are retraining workers instead of axing them outright—exactly how the story opened during the Industrial Revolution and the Internet Age. The plot twist this time? We’ve got 250 years of receipts on how this movie usually ends: who adapts, who doesn’t, and who gets buried.

The real question isn’t if AI will change work. It’s whether we’ll stop acting brand new and finally use history’s playbook.

Industrial Revolution: When the Machines First Drew Blood

1760. Steam. Looms. Steel. The original nightmare fuel for workers who thought their craft was untouchable. Artisans watched in horror as machines learned their moves. Riots followed. They smashed gears, swung hammers, and gave us the term “Luddite.”

But here’s the overlooked truth: the Industrial Revolution unfolded in slow motion, and its phases are carbon copies of what we’re living through with AI.

• Phase 1 (1760–1780): Coexistence. Machines didn’t instantly kill jobs—they worked with humans. Craftsmen were still needed to operate and tweak the tech. Exactly like today, where AI needs handlers before it can replace them.

• Phase 2 (1780–1810): Retraining. Blacksmiths became mechanics. Weavers became operators. Winners weren’t the ones who fought the machines, but the ones who learned to dance with them. (Same reason AI skills are commanding a 56% wage premium right now.)

• Phase 3 (1810–1840): Acceleration. Once the tech matured, the bloodletting came fast. Whole categories of work vanished. But the economy? Exploded. New jobs grew faster than the old ones died.

Eighty years of upheaval, capped off by thirty years of mayhem. AI may run the same play, just faster.

Internet Age: The Dress Rehearsal

Fast-forward to 1990. The Internet shows up like a scrappy garage band, all noise and no hits. Companies played with websites and email, most of it junk. Sound familiar? MIT says 95% of AI pilots today are failing.

• Phase 1 (1990–1995): Experiment. HTML coders and email wranglers cashed in, but the tools were side hustles, not main gigs.

• Phase 2 (1995–2000): Infrastructure. The dot-com boom pumped billions into digital plumbing. Jobs exploded. Everyone ate.

• Phase 3 (2000–2005): Crash and Correction. Bubbles popped, weak hands folded, but the survivors integrated digital into the core. That’s when the real disruption began.

• Phase 4 (2005–2010): Acceleration. Travel agents, bookstores, music retailers? Toast. Replaced by digital-first hustlers—e-commerce wizards, social media gurus, app developers.

And the winners weren’t always the coders. It was the accountant who mastered cloud tools, the realtor who embraced online listings, the marketer who weaponized digital ads. Same playbook we’re watching with AI.

Winners, Losers, and the Brutal Math

History keeps receipts. The winners weren’t the smartest—they were the most adaptable.

• Winners: The mobile, the lifelong learners, the network builders, the risk-takers. People who experimented with new tools before their boss made them.

• Losers: The Luddites, the skill hoarders, the geographically stuck, the network-isolated. People who clung to the past like a drowning man to a stone.

Sound harsh? It was. And it will be again.

Why AI Is a Meaner Beast

Every revolution has its flavor, but AI’s packing extra heat:

• Speed. The Industrial Revolution dragged for 80 years. The Internet reshaped the world in 20. AI’s doubling every 12–18 months. Strap in for a 5–10 year rollercoaster.

• Breadth. Steam hit factories. The Internet hit offices. AI hits everything. White collar, blue collar, doesn’t matter—intelligence is the universal solvent. (Stanford’s AI Index backs this up).

• Capital. $500 billion in AI bets are coming from the biggest players, not spread across mom-and-pop shops. That concentration means inequality could get uglier than ever.

The Policy Gamble

History says nations that win are the ones that invest in education, infrastructure, and safety nets.

• Industrial Revolution winners built schools.

• Internet Age winners built broadband.

• AI winners? They’ll build retraining pipelines and compute power.

But here’s the rub: AI’s clock runs fast. That window for reform isn’t decades—it’s maybe five years, tops.

The Bottom Line: History as a Strategy Guide

Here’s the cold truth: the outcomes aren’t locked in.

• Workers who adapt, experiment, and network will thrive.

• Companies that use AI to augment humans—not erase them—will come out on top.

• Societies that fund education and infrastructure will weather the storm.

Ignore history, and you’ll get steamrolled. Study it, and you might just ride the wave.

The Fed’s report says we’re in the retraining phase. That’s the warning bell. The clock is ticking.

AI is coming. The only real question: will you adapt, or will you be a cautionary tale told in the next disruption?

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One more thing before I go…

I caught up with Tullio Siragusa—executive coach, founder of TullioSiragusa.com, and one of those rare voices who blends wisdom with edge. We talked about something that’s been tugging at me lately: can emotional intelligence still matter in a world run by algorithms? Or better yet, can it thrive there? Pull up a chair, lean in, and listen to where the conversation took us.

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Next week we close it out.
Final drop in my 5-part series.
Working title: “AI Navigating the Perfect Storm: A Roadmap for Workers, Companies, and Policymakers.”
Might change it. Might not. You’ll find out when I hit publish.

👀 Also cooking: a fresh job-hunting webinar later this month.
Stay tuned—it’s gonna be practical, not fluffy.

And you know the drill.
Hit reply. Drop a comment. Slide in the DMs (as the kids say).
Feedback fuels the work.

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